Biker Yoga

I know what you are thinking, but I am not talking about you sitting next to your bike on the side of road doing strange poses with strange names like “downward facing dog” or to do as in the picture, although, that would be cool.

Biker Yoga was something I came up with one day when riding to Naples. It wasn’t a far ride, maybe 150 miles from where I started, but, at some point with a long ride, your body starts to feel tired and the next day you are likely to feel sore.

After this last trip I did cross country, I found myself doing a lot of what I call Biker Yoga. The typical biker doesn’t pay too much attention to his body while riding other than maybe stretch for a second at a gas station or traffic light, and that’s it. But with Biker Yoga, I am able to stretch and use my muscles while riding, getting blood flowing to my muscles and the rest of my body.

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Biker Yoga is just simply flexing and contracting my muscles. For example, I may push down with both feet and try to lift my butt off my seat for ten seconds or do it repeatedly, which gets the blood flowing into my legs. For my arms while holding the handlebars, I start to contract my biceps, or my forearms by squeezing the throttle “x” amount of times or giving it long squeeze.

With my calves, I like to raise the heel off the floorboard and squeeze my calf muscles. Then I may hit the heel down on the floorboard then lift the front part of my foot up to stretch the tendons in my Achilles. I have done this as much as 100 times. For my chest, with my both hands on the throttle, I squeeze my chest/pecs.

To stretch while riding, I wrap my arm around my body completely, then squeeze my chest, arms, and back (lats) simultaneously. I also like to stretch out my hamstrings by resting my foot on the crash bar and leaning forward as far as I can over the tank. Sometimes, I’ll take my foot of the crash bar and just keep my leg dangling in the air. Try that for 10 seconds or more and see how hard it is.

When I start to get tired, bored, or sleepy, I do these exercises as it helps me wake up and kill the monotony of a long ride down a straight road that last forever. It also works well when riding in cold weather. Sometimes, the next day, my muscles are as sore as if I were in the gym all day pumping iron.

One tip, make sure you try to sit as straight as possible. The more we ride or drive, the more we ultimately start to slump in our seat. Be aware of that, because that not only hurts your lower back, but it also adds a lot of pressure to your kidneys. There is a reason motor men ride straight up, and it’s not to look cool.